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Police pursuits: there has to be a better and safer way

Peter Norden

The scene of the latest accident to be linked to a police pursuit in Victoria. Photo: Ken Irwin

While the Victorian community was still in shock at the two fatalities resulting from a high-speed police pursuit in Gippsland last weekend, another chase in central Melbourne yesterday has left a young man dead.

Since 1977, when I founded The Brosnan Centre for released high-risk offenders, I have had close contact with young men who were involved in such irresponsible pursuits. These young men often act irrationally, and even more so when affected by drugs or alcohol. They have limited capacity for awareness of the impact of their actions on others, be they passengers or innocent bystanders.

Members of Victoria Police cannot directly be held to blame for the deaths or serious injuries that occur from such pursuits, but the current policy is now presenting an unacceptable public risk. We need a policy that minimises the risk to life caused by those who flee from police.

A report in The Age this week explained that the police justify their present policy while continuing to complete an internal review. This is similar to the Victoria Police response to concerns about the high rate of deaths from police shootings in the 1990s. Eventually, as the death toll mounted, the police minister acknowledged the need for a change, which led to a retraining of the force, known as Project Beacon.

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Few people would argue that police should never be involved in a pursuit. But what is required now is a wider, more independent review that involves outside experts such as John Lambert, a road safety expert.

He suggests that Victoria should follow the policy in Tasmania and Queensland, which seriously limits the number of pursuits and upholds the value of human life as paramount.

Tasmania virtually eliminated deaths and injuries from police pursuits when it banned pursuits related to traffic offences and stolen cars in 1999.

Lambert reports that the fatality rate when police vehicles are involved in an accident is about 3500 times the average, and that police vehicles are involved in crashes at about 300 times the level expected in normal traffic. In this sense, the police vehicle can now be regarded as the most dangerous weapon in the police arsenal.

Acting Commissioner Kieran Walshe suggested on this page that a ban on police pursuits would make criminals the winners. A broader review of police practice would look beyond such a black-and-white analysis of a complex dilemma.

Police yesterday reported that they must pursue a vehicle that avoids a random breath test. But what if the vehicle's registration can be identified? Is the risk to life still justifiable?

The question the Police Minister or the Commissioner of Police must address is this: in what circumstances is it acceptable for innocent members of the community, or even irresponsible offenders, to die or be seriously injured over a stolen vehicle or a traffic offence?

The investigations being undertaken by the police ethical standards department into each of these incidents do not look at the overall issues of pursuit-related road trauma. They simply look at the details of a particular incident alone.

Lambert points out that about 45,000 vehicles are stolen each year across Australia. Very few of these are sighted by police. Abandoning pursuits of the small percentage of stolen vehicles that are identified would have a minimal impact on the number of cars stolen.

Most Victorians would rather their stolen vehicle be found with an empty tank of petrol than involved in an accident or, worse, the cause of the death of an innocent bystander.

The solution that is required is a broader review of police practice in this area, similar to the one that was undertaken on police shootings.

Clearly, there are some circumstances when police must engage in high-speed pursuits. Most of the pursuits begin almost spontaneously and take some time to be supervised by a superior officer. The pursuit vehicle often has no idea who the offender is. Too often the pursuit results in an accident even before it can be monitored by independent senior officers.

Given the escalating number of fatalities, the Victorian community can reasonably expect that, before a decision to pursue is made, there is some capacity to prioritise the need to engage in that pursuit before putting the lives of police and others at risk.

Professor Peter Norden has been involved with the criminal justice system for more than 30 years and is an adjunct professor at the school of global studies, social science and planning at RMIT University.

50 comments

"they have limited capacity for awareness of the impact of their actions on others."How about two years imprisonment for engaging police in a pursuit? That might help it sink in a little.

Commenter

here's johnny

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 7:43AM

Wish people would stop blaming the police for these unfortunately cases - blame the REAL culprits - the driver being pursued!

Commenter

Robert

Location

Wantirna

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 7:53AM

You hit the nail on the head. The police would be the first ones to have the fingers pointed at if these drivers weren't stopped and then went on to kill someone else.

Enough pandering to these morons and blaming the police.

Commenter

Ohreally

Location

Bentleigh

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 9:21AM

Plea to Police:Please never under any circumstances give up on any pursuit. You have my full support and should never be asked to explain your persuit techniques.Plea to Media:Please stop reporting these deaths as "another death on our roads due to a police persuit" these are deaths of law breaking morons fleeing the police.

Commenter

Stavros

Location

Gold Coast

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 8:31AM

Solution - install a device in each car which can kill the motor by using a code transmitted from a police car.

Commenter

Bruce

Location

Bogee

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 8:36AM

The only solution ... automatic (and immediate) jail for any driver that engages police in a pursuit.

Commenter

Chook

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 8:45AM

How dare people blame the police when it is our own ridiculous "Everyone has a right to drive" and "People should be protected from killing themselves through their own stupidity" that is really the problem.

"They have limited capacity for awareness of the impact of their actions on others."

Then why are they still allowed to have licences? They are essentially sociopaths in cars, and unfortunately they seem more prone to killing and injuring passengers and innocent others rather than removing themselves from the gene pool.

Driving a car well requires consideration for others, something these people (and many others) are mentally incapable of. It is time to look at how people are tested for their licence and stop them retaining licences/access to cars as well as banning bad drivers from teaching their children the same bad habits.

Penalties for aggressive, inconsiderate behaviour need to be dramatically increased. Symptoms of this attitude to driving include - speeding up for orange lights, running red lights, driving unlicenced, pushing in on the left at intersections, failing to indicate, changing lanes over solid white lines, going straight ahead from turning only lanes, ignoring pedestrian crossings/green walking lights.

For serial offenders increase the fines as well as fine all others in the car the same penalty, at least that might get peer pressure working to stop people getting in the car with idiots.

Commenter

Sick of stupid drivers

Location

Melb

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 8:49AM

Interesting feedback so far... I took a different perspective from this article.

There seems to be evidence to suggest that there needs to be a bit more strategy involved in police pursuits. When an offender attempts to evade police, its a simple decision in the mind of the offender - "go faster or get caught", therefore, the more he is pushed, the higher the risk is to the rest of the public. Dont get me wrong, he needs to be punished, but not at the risk of the idiot mis-judging a corner and slamming into a family of 4.

Why cant the police upgrade the technology of the cameras in their car so that number plates can be recorded from distance and pick the idiot up at home 20 mins later. No one is suggesting they shouldnt be punished once they are caught... Its just a proposal for a smarter way to save lives.

Commenter

Nigel

Location

McMahons Point

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 11:08AM

Nigel, the problem with your idea is that the vast majority of people who flee from the police are not in their own car and hence cannot simply be picked up at their home. There is also the onus of proof for those that could be picked up that way. The police would need to prove who was driving the car and all the offender has to do is say "it wasn't me driving". To the bleeding hearts that say poor Johnny would still be alive if the police didn't chase him, i'm sorry but poor Johnny would still be alive if he didn't steal that car or get into that stolen car.

Commenter

BAG

Date and time

January 27, 2012, 12:03PM

The increase in pursuit deaths is gravely concerning. Do the police let the driver go & not pursue, at risk of an accident further down the road? Or do they try & isolate the pursued at risk of that person dying if a crash results? It's a hard one.

We have to question the cars that many of these young drivers drive. 6 cyl/V8's/4WD's are not a suitable car for inexperienced drivers. They all have their handling issues at speed, so why are under 25's permitted to drive them? Add drugs & alcohol into the equation & it's a dangerous combination.

What can we do about it? Make under 25's only be allowed to drive 4 cyl cars. Simple. Sure there's going to be bitching about the family car being a 6 cyl blah blah blah. Utter crap. Look at the cars these drivers are driving...hardly family cars.

They restrict young drivers to 4cyls in other countries & it works, and somehow a 4cyl doesn't quite cut the same image for the young petrol head as a club hsv or a hotted up statesman. Sure 4 cyls can be modified, & sure there will always deaths at some stage or other during a police pursuit but it's our best option at this stage, other than extending the duration of being a learner driver &/or enforcing ongoing driver safety courses until off P plates.